European shares pare gains as macro worries offset Fed relief

Redacción de Reuters

2 MIN. DE LECTURA

LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - European shares pared their morning gains on Thursday afternoon, with traders saying that worries about the euro zone economy were leading investors to cash in on an initial bounce.

At 1129 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.2 percent at 1,321.48 points, off an intraday high of 1,333.40 points. Futures on U.S. indexes were little changed.

The market had been boosted by the Federal Reserve's minutes suggesting the Fed would not start hiking interest rates until the U.S. economy is strong enough to accept the move.

Yet European economic data has been weak recently. Figures showed on Thursday German exports slumped by 5.8 percent in August, their biggest fall since the height of the global financial crisis in January 2009, in yet another sign that Europe's largest economy was faltering. [ID: nL6N0S32V1]

"Everyone was a bit more bullish after the minutes but Europe's picture hasn't changed," Mike Reuter, a broker at Tradition, said. "So overall people are taking advantage (of the bounce) and taking a bit of profit." (Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Atul Prakash)